To quote the British critic Kenneth Tynan, "Beckett's Waiting for Godot is a dramatic vacuum.It has no plot, no climax, no denouement; no beginning, no middle, and no end." Through his play, Samuel Beckett takes us on a literary journey of extremely thought-provoking nature. His style of writing is thoroughly cryptic and open to an infinite number of interpretations and misinterpretations. Drawing heavily from religious themes and the Bible, the book is in some ways a repetitive rant on existentialism. Beckett never gave an interpretation of his own for the play and left it to his readers to unravel. The play is based on how two characters Vladimir and Estragon wait for a mutual friend of theirs named Godot whom strangely both of them have never seen but hold in awe and respect. In their wait, they meet Pozzo and his slave Lucky and also a messenger boy who claims he comes from Godot who in the end does not even turn up. Yet Vladimir and Estragon remain there waiting for him as if their wills have been bound up by invisible chains. It may be argued that Beckett through this play seeks to show mankind, how by their age-old religious practices and their futile search for God are stuck in such a deep rut that they lack the courage and determination to get out of it. The two characters Vladimir and Estragon can be said to represent humanity as a whole, Vladimir being the mind and the more authoritative one, and Estragon the body and the submissive one. Yet towards the end of the play, the distinction between them becomes so blurred that they seem to reverse their roles. It is as if each comes to understand each others point of view, and yet are no farther from where they started. Men, through their ancient and blind faith and rituals seem to be waiting for a non existent salvation which never seems to come. The only consolation the characters seem to get is each others' company, and an unending exercise in futility.
